Many Iranians are very upset at their government and that is the principle reason for what a number of observers have called the largest protests since the downfall of the Shah in 1979, although without press access it is difficult to accurately determine crowd size.

A 3-D virtual clay sculpting software package that came on the market this week was developed out of research conducted by University at Buffalo mechanical engineers who wanted to speed up computational design of complex, organic shapes.

The effective use of multiple layers of intelligence gathering, including existing behavioral identification programs, could have excluded the murderous Farouk Abdul Mutallab from travel before he got anywhere near Northwest Flight 253.

The Edwin F. Jaeckle Award, the highest honor awarded by the University at Buffalo Law School and the UB Law Alumni Association, will be given to Kenneth B. Forrest, JD '76, for his distinguished contributions to four deans in setting the strategic direction of the Law School. Forrest is a longtime member and past chair of UB Law School's Dean's Advisory Council.

June in Buffalo, the internationally celebrated festival and conference for emerging composers of new music, will celebrate its 35th anniversary this year and it has a treat in store for its audiences.

Donald Shoup, PhD, a widely published and influential professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been named the 2010 Clarkson Visiting Chair in Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning.

Parents are acutely aware of the influence of friends on their children's behavior -- how they dress, how they wear their hair, whether they drink or smoke. A new laboratory-based study has shown that friends also may influence how much adolescents eat.

University at Buffalo faculty -- including earthquake engineering, disaster, trauma and communication experts -- are available to discuss the tragic earthquake in Haiti. A listing of the experts and their commentary is available at http://newstips.buffalo.edu.

Gov. David A. Paterson announced today that he will include in his 2010 Executive Budget significant reforms that would give SUNY -- and the University at Buffalo -- the financial flexibility to position the system and university to play a major role in the state's economic resurgence and support UB 2020 as a basis for economic transformation in Western New York.

The Department of Theatre and Dance at the University at Buffalo will present Zodiaque Dance Company on Feb 18-21 and Feb. 26-28 in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North Campus. Performances will be held Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The University at Buffalo's world-renowned earthquake engineering faculty, and the internationally diverse students who come here to train in this critical field, are always intensely interested in any earthquake that occurs. But for Pierre Fouche, who is working on his doctorate in earthquake engineering, the earthquake in Haiti had enormous personal significance. Fouche is Haitian and his family lives there.

University at Buffalo researchers are the first to show that a controlled individualized exercise training program can bring athletes and others suffering with post-concussion syndrome (PCS) back to the playing field or to their daily activities.

WBFO 88.7 FM, the University at Buffalo's National Public Radio member station, will launch new programming weekdays and weekends beginning Feb. 1, expanding its array of award-winning NPR news, analysis and entertainment.

She lost 15 family members in the Haitian earthquake, but Samarth Joseph, a Haitian-born PhD student in the University at Buffalo Department of Geography, plans to be back on the island by the end of the week to help her homeless family members and to distribute solar cookers to residents.

The powerful aftershock that hit the already devastated city of Port au Prince on Jan. 20 has only intensified Haiti's need for French-speaking structural engineers who can immediately determine which of the structures left standing may still pose a threat to human safety.

University at Buffalo medical students are "passing the hat" and organizing events to raise funds for Haiti in the aftermath of the massive earthquake on Jan. 11 and the 5.9 magnitude aftershock that followed on Jan. 20.

University at Buffalo Law School Professor Susan V. Mangold has been selected the leading academic for one of 15 teams accepted for a cooperative research conference sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Mental Health.

The celebrated one-woman play Miracle in Rwanda, which tells the story of a Rwandan woman who survived her country's 1994 horrifying genocide, will be performed on Feb. 11-13 at the University at Buffalo in memory of the late human-rights activist, historian and MacArthur Fellow Alison L. Des Forges.

Days after arriving in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince, a team of French-speaking structural engineers led by Andre Filiatrault, PhD, University at Buffalo civil engineering professor and director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), headquartered at UB, was appointed by the United Nations as its interim lead coordinating team for organizing and initiating building assessments.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present The Israel Ballet on Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North Campus. The performance is sponsored by M&T Bank. It is also sponsored in part by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo.

The University at Buffalo Department of Theatre and Dance will present Harold Pinter's comedy A Night Out Feb. 24-28. Performance times are Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre, located in the Center for the Arts on the UB North Campus.

The University at Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute on Jan. 28 will begin the latest step in UB;s expanding academic model to address the nationwide nursing shortage, launching a clinical nursing education program unique in New York State.

Frederick E. Munschauer III, MD, noted neurologist and chair of the University at Buffalo's Department of Neurology, has been appointed vice president of U.S. medical affairs for Biogen Idec in Boston, Mass.

In the national effort to lower health care costs by preventing chronic disease and hospitalizations, dentists may be an important part of the solution. A nationwide survey published in the January 2010 issue of the JADA (The Journal of the American Dental Association) reports that dentists would be willing to screen their patients for medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases when they come to the office for dental care.

Ask anyone familiar with the public drama: School boards provoke as much passion among their constituents as Congress. And it's easy to understand why, says Thomas Ramming, clinical assistant professor of educational leadership and policy in the University at Buffalo's Graduate School of Education.

The University at Buffalo Art Gallery, Center for the Arts, will present Reflexive Architecture Machines, an exhibition featuring architectural prototypes that explore how conventional materials can become more responsive to environmental and human interactions. The exhibition will open on Feb. 11 with a public reception at 5 p.m.

The University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions has established a Division of Environmental Health Sciences and appointed James R. Olson, PhD, professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, as director.

University at Buffalo biologists have identified an enzyme that degrades an important protein present in cancers of both adults and children. The findings, published in the current issue of Molecular Cell, could lead to more effective therapies for cancers in which the protein -- Wilms' tumor 1 (WT1) -- is involved, as well as to a better understanding of how childhood and adult cancers differ.

Pierre Fouche, a Haitian doctoral student in the earthquake engineering program in the UB Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, was interviewed by satellite for CBC-TV's News Now. The interview focused on reconstruction efforts in Haiti, and was prompted by the international meeting in Canada on Monday to discuss how to help Haiti rebuild. Fouche also was interviewed Monday by CBC Radio on the same topic. The radio interview (in French) is at http://www.radio-canada.ca/audio-video/pop.shtml#urlMedia=http://www.radio-canada.ca/Medianet/2010/CBF/Desautels201001251732_2.asx. Or go to http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/desautels/2009-2010/; scroll down and click on "L/Entrevue avec Pierre fouche." The CBC TV interview is not available online.

Brian Carter announced today that he will step down as dean of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning after more than seven years in the post. He will devote more time to design research and practice as a member of the school's faculty.

The University at Buffalo will uphold a longstanding winter tradition as it celebrates the 210th anniversary of the birth of Millard Fillmore, UB's first chancellor and the 13th president of the United States, at a ceremony to be held at 10 a.m. today (Thursday, Jan. 7, 2009) at Fillmore's gravesite in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

The University at Buffalo will uphold a longstanding winter tradition as it celebrates the 210th anniversary of the birth of Millard Fillmore, UB's first chancellor and the 13th president of the United States, at a ceremony to be held at 10 a.m. Jan. 7 at Fillmore's gravesite in Forest Lawn Cemetery.